


Strays

by Dellanir



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies), Mad Max: Fury Road
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Attempted Kidnapping, Everybody Lives, F/M, Family, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Pets, Wasteland family AU, mention of child harassment, the backstory just popped out, the wives are kids, this was supposed to be fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 21:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4682621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dellanir/pseuds/Dellanir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the girls bring home one animal too many, Furiosa has a drive through memory lane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strays

“No more strays!” Furiosa found herself yelling one afternoon, startling everyone in the house.

It all started when Max came back a few months ago, bringing along a dog. It was a retired K-9, missing his right hind leg. Furiosa felt instant sympathy for the dog and after making sure it won’t pose a threat to the girls, there was no need to convince her to let them keep it. The girls instantly fell in love with the dog.

“What’s his name?” Capable asked Max.

“Dog.”

Furiosa only shook her head at that name. She wasn’t exactly in a position to complain about weird names, so she kept her mouth shut and gently scratched Dog behind the ears instead. “Good boy,” she smiled at him.

For whatever reason, the girls thought that since Max got to bring home a dog, they can bring home whatever stray animals they find as well. At first it was just cats, most of which weren’t even stray, just tame enough to allow the girls to pick them up and bring home. Those never stayed long; at most they ate the cat food the girls gave them and then bolted out of the house, finding their way back home. The real strays also enjoyed their freedom outside, but came to hang around or beg for food from time to time and the girls never refused. Furiosa just groaned. The dog, at least, never left them.

Then one day, Capable brought home a hamster, with a fully equipped cage. When asked where she got it all from, the redhead told her a friend gave it to her. Furiosa sighed. The hamster was well fed, he got chubbier as the days passed and the girls always laughed at how he stuffed food into his pouches, barely able to walk afterwards. But when one day she found not one but eight hamsters in the cage, she realized the hamster was neither he nor chubby. The lady hamster and her brood were returned to Capable’s friend that same day, much to the girls’ dismay.

It was quiet for a while, until today, when Dag showed up, holding a snake, its body wrapped around her arm while she held its head gently in place so it wouldn’t bite her. While impressed she knew how to hold a snake, Furiosa knew it was time to draw the line.

“No more strays!”

“But moooom,” Cheedo begged on Dag’s behalf (only she called Furiosa mom, the others called her by her name and Dag decided to mix the two and came up with Momiosa – which, surprisingly, Furiosa rather liked). “Dag found it in the park! We couldn’t leave it there, someone could step on it!”

Max (who preferred to not get dragged into the whole bringing-home-strays business, knowing full well it was his fault for bringing Dog over) perked up at that. “You caught a wild snake?” he asked Dag.

“Yup,” she beamed proudly at him.

“No, no, that is not good,” he shook his head. “You need to return it to the wild. Taking wildlife home is illegal. And they’re better off in their, mm, natural surroundings.”

Furiosa smiled at him in gratitude. She carefully took the snake from Dag’s hands, making sure its neck was gripped with just the right amount of force so as not to hurt it nor allow it to bite anyone. “C’mon,” she told the two girls, “let’s return this snake back where you found it.”

On their way to the park, Dag kept asking her if she could get a snake from the pet store. “That wouldn’t be illegal, right, Momiosa?”

“No. But snakes are a lot of work, Dag, and we’d need to get mice to feed it, and a special tank and everything…” She sighed. “I’m sorry, Dag, but you can’t have a snake now.”

“Later, then?” She sounded hopeful.

Hope. Such a powerful thing. Some call it a mistake. “Maybe,” Furiosa told her and that was that.

They returned the snake to the park, finding a less crowded area to release it in. It quickly slithered away, the girls waving it goodbye. On their way back, Cheedo tried to cheer up Dag by suggesting they adopt a shelter dog instead, and Furiosa suddenly remembered how she “adopted” her five daughters.

* * *

 

Her past was not something she fondly looked back at. Her life was miserable as it was, and seeing little girls aimlessly wandering the streets and knowing what will happen to them once they get old enough made her stomach churn. And one day, she had enough.

The first girl she picked up was on the verge of puberty, her golden hair in tangles, the rags she wore as clothing grey with dirt. Despite all that, her face was strikingly beautiful and everyone knew her as Splendid. Only when the girl was tucked safely into Furiosa’s side did she tell her that her real name was Angharad.

The next girl was only slightly younger, and her hair was such a bright red color, Furiosa was worried it was blood. Redheads weren’t exactly a common sight there, and the girl, who introduced herself as Capable, had to assure Furiosa that she was really okay and didn’t have a horrible head injury.

Cheedo and Dag were kind of a buy-one-get-one-free deal, as they were inseparable from the moment she saw them. If they didn’t look so different, Furiosa would’ve though they were twins, attached at the hip or something. The dark-haired Cheedo turned out to be only nine years old, while the pale Dag was eleven (although her height made her look even older than that).

The last girl she took from the wretched place was Toast. At first, Furiosa thought her to be a boy; her hair cut short, toothpick sticking out of the corner of her mouth and a fierce look in her eyes that dared anyone to harass her. But when Furiosa approached her with the offer of a better life, the twelve year old girl gladly accepted, throwing away her façade and allowing herself to be vulnerable once more.

The girls absolutely adored each other and their new mom, and for a while, their life was perfect. But the fact that the girls weren’t actually legally adopted, therefore in the eyes of law, stolen, soon caught up with them.

It was unfair, Furiosa thought, that nobody cared about the girls’ fate back when they were in those streets, child services and police only interested when someone tried to give them a brighter future. Granted, she knew she broke the law, but it was for a good cause. She made a promise to the girls and no one would take them from her.

The police officer that came banging on their door one day had no idea how unfortunate he was that day. He certainly didn’t expect Furiosa to tackle him the second she opened the door, or to fight tooth-and-nails, beating the living hell out of him with whatever objects she could reach. He threw in some good punches too, but the woman’s fury was a sight to behold. Only after he managed to shoot three warning shots around her head did she calm down and he could think of his next move.

And that move was yelling “Freeze!” at a group of teenage boys covered in white paint and skulls painted on their faces as they tried to kidnap the five girls right from under their noses. During their fight, neither the officer nor Furiosa noticed the boys sneaking into the house, and now they were taking the girls away, hands clasped over their mouth so they wouldn’t scream for help.

With one look at the officer, Furiosa jumped to her feet and tackled one of the kidnappers, while the cop shot another one in the leg. With Cheedo and Capable now free, Dag promptly bit the hand that was covering her mouth, forcing the boy to drop her as he screamed in pain. Before he could grab her again, his head had a rather unpleasant meeting with a shovel. Angharad and Toast were hauled into a car waiting nearby, while three other boys stayed behind, distracting Furiosa and the officer. Furiosa made short work of two of them, while the cop took out the last one and handcuffed him to the fence.

The car was speeding away from them, but the cop tossed his gun to Furiosa and she shot their tires, while he made sure the knocked out gang members were securely tied to the fence. The car crashed into a tree and as she was about to run to it to get her two girls out of there, Furiosa saw one of the back doors open and one of the boys fell out, clearly unconscious. After that, the girls got out and ran to her, Angharad all but jumping into her arms and Toast gluing herself to her leg. When Furiosa looked back at the officer, she saw him in a similar predicament, Dag holding his hand while she held Cheedo close, and Capable wrapped around his leg as well.

“I didn’t have time to, uh, introduce myself,” the officer spoke up as she approached him. He held out his hand. “My name is Max.”

She shook his hand. “Furiosa.”

“Are you still going to take us away?” Angharad piped up, staring at Max intently.

“No.” He looked at the girls, now squealing in joy, and then he locked eyes with Furiosa. “I can help with the, uh, adoption papers,” he told her. “Make sure the girls can stay with you.”

“Thank you,” Furiosa breathed. Relief flooded her, and she would’ve hugged Max if the girls weren’t wrapped around both of them.

He nodded. “Maybe you should, mm, find another place to live,” he suggested.

She looked at the pack of unconscious teenagers tied to her fence. “Yeah, I guess we should.”

After that, Max went to the kidnappers’ car to get the remaining two boys, still knocked out, and called for reinforcements to get the whole group to the police station.

As he waited for his colleagues, Furiosa joined him, holding two beer bottles. When he gave her a look, she pointed at the “non-alcoholic” sign. With a sigh he took the bottle from her, knocked it against hers and they both took a sip, enjoying the camaraderie built between them.

* * *

 

It occurred to her, now, that _that_ was the day she adopted Max too. In fact, _she_ was the one who started taking strays under her wing. Huh. If she could take care of five girls and a grown man, an additional animal or two shouldn’t be a problem, really.

She looked at Dag, who stilled looked a bit crestfallen, despite Cheedo’s best attempts to cheer her up. “Hey, Dag?”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s get you that snake.”

**Author's Note:**

> Me: Let's write a cute fluffy fic about the girls getting more pets!  
> Brain: Yeah... or we could...  
> Me: No.  
> Brain: ...also include some sad backstory....  
> Me: No. No. No.  
> Brain: ... of how Furiosa adopted them all.  
> Me: *facepalm*
> 
> Oh gods, I don't even know what this is, I am so sorry.
> 
> Also, [this image](http://ryokutya1107.tumblr.com/post/127465134220/madmax-%E6%80%92%E3%82%8A%E3%81%AE%E5%AD%90%E5%AE%88%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89) popped into my head during one of the scenes :D


End file.
